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Friday, 20 January 2012

iBook Author, Apple tightens and releases the noose

Yesterday Apple announced their assault on
the educational text book market. Using the free authoring tool publishers and
individuals can create rich interactive text books.

However, Apple impose two restrictions on
publication. The first which has been gaining a lot of attention is the
publishing limitations. Books can only be published through the iBooks store,
and can only be read on an iPad. As
The Register says the issue is not that Apple is making any claim to the rights for the
content but that it will control the only means of distribution. Apparently there is no technical
restriction, as the output form the authoring software is an extension to the ePub 3 standard.

The second more welcome restrictions is
that Apple limits the price of such books to a $14.99 ceiling. While this makes
the text books far more affordable users cannot pass on or share their copies,
and more importantly they have to pay for an iPad as a ticket to enter the
market. To take part in this revolution schools will have to invest in Apple in
a huge scale. Apple are using the promise of rich and highly functional
inexpensive individual textbooks as a further carrot to make the iPad the
educational IT device of choice.
One could see the pester power of affluent iPad owning parents
pressurizing educational authorities to provide an iPad for every child.

Even although Apple is well rehearsed in
starting revolutions, this is one which will take some time to come to the boil, at least within the textbook market.
Publishers have to invest time and energy not only in porting their existing
publications but also creating additional new multi media content to enliven
their publications. As the US
educational market is leading the charge in the mass use of iPads in schools,
by far and away the bulk of textbooks will be designed for US curriculums. How
long will it take for the UK, or any other individual market, to build up
libraries of iBook textbooks?

Despite these issues, perhaps the most
interesting aspect is the iBook Author software. The software is full of Apple
UI delights and appears to be a powerful yet easy to use tool. Currently Apple
has the field to itself. Push Pop Press produced Al Gore’s, Our Choice
acclaimed ebook. At the time of its release it looked like they would make
their creation tools available to a wider audience. Their acquisition by
Facebook put paid to that.

Adobe are offering their Digital PublishingPlatform which integrates with CS5 and offers a high end, expert solution.
Other publishing tools are limited and do not offer the richness and ease of
use of Apple’s offering. In effect iBook Author is the first digital publishing
tool for the masses. It has the potential to kick off an ebook self publishing movement
akin to the desktop publishing revolution of the 80’s. I suspect that it will
be in this non textbook market that we will see the most significant short term
change.

Now anyone can create rich media digital
magazines and journals, children’s books and guides. The restrictions on
publishing are lifted if the output is free, as
apple’s end-user licence agreement puts it:

if your Work is provided for free (at no
charge), you may distribute the Work by any available means

As long as process of getting publishing
approval from the iBookstore is not lengthy then brands could publish
magazines, brochures etc through this channel. Busnesses could publish reports
and guides etc. Competition will appear as the Apple tool set is copied by
others and more open publishing opportunities will become available. This will put further strain on
publishers and content providers as the digital market fragments even more.

One last point, eBooks have only been with
us for a limited period. With their advent we have moved from a publishing
medium which is static and has great longevity to one who’s lifespan may be
measured in decades ( if we are lucky ). Give this, will there be any ebooks, and by this I mean ones which fully
embrace the format, that will have a lasting impact as their paper ancestors?